Lock knife for harness mechanism



Aug. 23, 1932. w. M. WATTIE LOCK KNIFE FOR HARNESS MECHANISM 2Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 23, 1951 Iv l/E/V TUF' W/L L 44mm WA 77/5 Aug.23, 1932. I w. M. WATTIE 1,373,517

LOCK KNIFE FDR HARNESS MECHANISM Filed Jan. 23. 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 mFIG. E W WWII. #34

J/v l/EN TU/P l V/L L /AM/7. WA 77/:

A TTU/ PNB j Patented Aug. 23, 1932 TED STATES PATENTOF-FlCE WILLIAM M.WATTIE, or WORCESTER,.MASSACHUSETTS, nssreivon '10 GRQMPTON Q J KNOWLESLOOM WORKS, or WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, n CORPORATION" or MASSACHUSETTSLoon KivIFEroR firmness MECHANISM Application filed January 23, 1931.Serial Ira 519,732.

' This invention relates to improvements in lock knives forso-calledKnowles heads and it'is the generalobject of the invention toprovide means whereby such a knife will be given positivemo'vements bothtoward and from vibrator lever locking position.

a The so-called Knowles head operates with a set of vibrator leverswhich are located be-- no pattern ball under it with the result that alever so lifted will not be high enough to be properly engaged by thetop cylinder. Un-

der these circumstances. the vibrator gear will be pushed downwarcllybut not in suflicient time to receive the complete movement of the lowercylinder, with the result that the harness jack is not definitelypositioned' It is an important object of my present invention to providea lock knife somewhat'similar to that heretofore employed for thepurpose of positioning the vibrator levers, but so actuated that if alever be raised partially it will be given a downward movementin time toreceive the complete rotative effect of the lower cylinder. Heretoforesprings have been employed to operate the lock knives toward thevibrator levers with resulta nt yielding of the knife permitting thevibrator lever to re main in its improper position. a

It is another objectof my inventionto i111.

.45; position of the/vibrator levers may he attended by a correspondingmovement of the knife. c

With these and other objects in will appearas the description proceeds,my inventionrresides inthe combination and arrangement of partshereinafter'described and set forth in'the claims. I V w In theaccompanying drawings, wherein a convenient'embodiment of my inventionis set forth," l g g Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a Knowles'headhaving my invention applied thereto,

Fig. 2 is a vertical section looking in' the direction of arrows 2 2,Fig. '1, certain parts being omitted, l v V Fig. 3 is atop plan viewlooking in the di rection of arrow 3, Fig.2, showing one of the' knifesupporting rods,

Fig. 4 is a front elevation of the lock knife showing its relation tothe vibrator levers. and V Fig. 5 is a horizontal section along line5''5 of Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, I have shown a loom frame 10inwhich arejournaled upper and lower oppositely rotating mutilated actuatingcylinders 11 and 12, respectively. A heel pin 13- supports a pluralityof vibra tor levers '14 on each of which is rotatably' mounted avibrator gear 15. The latter is located between the cylinders and iseither raised or lowered dependingiupon the call ofthe pattern. Thelatter i sdetermined by the pattern chain 16 which is mounted on shaft17 supported on stands 18 which may be bolted to the loom frame.

Each vibrator, gear has pivoted thereto a. harness connector19 which maybe attached.

By connections not shown the cylinders,

are caused to rotate as described and the patterncyllnder rotates toplacea new pattern view which surface under the vibrator levers eachpick of the 100m. 'When a Vibrator lever is to be raised a ball willappear thereunder so that the associated vibrator gear will beoperat-ive-' ly disposed with respect to the top cylinder 11. In likemanner, when the vibrator lever is to be in down position aso-calledsinker or ball of smallidiameter will appear thereunder so thatthe vibrator gear may fall to a position where it will be engaged by thelowercylinder12./v

. A'iixed comb 21 has projecting through the" upper end thereof theright ends of the vibrator levers as viewed in Fig. 1, each of saidvibrator levers having a projecting -,tip 22 having inclined upper andlower surfaces 23 I and24, respectively, as shown in Fig.4. A

. mechanism to be described to move into and 36 and 37.

out of locking engagement with thetips.

The lock knife is mountedon" a pluralityv of rods '30 the upper ends ofwhich are pros vided with rod heads 31 slotted; as at 32.;to

receive the lock knife 28. A bolt 33- passes through each rod head andthe lock knife and holdsthe latter in fixed position with respect to thebolt. The lower end of" each rod is threaded and extends through. an arm34 'pivotally mounted on a shaft 35 which'is 1 supported in the loomframe.-. Upper and lower check nuts 36 and 37, respectively,po sitionthe rod 30 with respect to the arm 34 so that each of said arms may beadjusted vertically with respect to the shaft 35. .The

latter-is substantially parallel to the patternv cylinder shaft 17 sothat any variation in the.

stands 18 which would result in changing the location of the tips 22 canbe accompanied by a corresponding vertical adjustment 'on the part ofthelock knife through the lock nuts One of the rods 30 hassecured theretooperat ng finger 40 which is adjusted thereto S oby means of screw 41.-and said fingerhas a ment with a second slot- 43 formed in the deslot'42,Fig. 5, which is in substantial align- V pending arm 44 of acainlever 4 5. The'latter carries aroll 46 which is received in a" trackcam groove 47 formed in acam'plate48. The

i latter is secured to the top cylinder 11 and rotates therewith. Apower transmitting I element in the form of a stud 49 is interposedbetweenthe arm 44 and the finger 40 and passesthroughthe aligningsurface, said stud being verticallyadjustab-le for the purpose ofvarying theeXtent of movement of the. lock knife. The movement of thelatter may also be changed by altering the location of the hub 50 ofthefinger 40 by means. ofset screw 41. .In operatiom-the top cylinderrotates prefand lower erably with a continuous motion in one di-:

rection when the 100m is Weaving normally and the cam groove acts tooscillate the lever 45 positively in opposite directions. The cam is soarrangedthat the arm 44 is movedto the right as viewed in Fig. 1 whenthe pattern c. linder is resent-inc a new attern surface 7 5 under thevibration levers. This action moves the lock knife out of the path ofthe tips 22' 'so that the levers 14 may respond to. the do mands of thepattern withoutinterference.

As soon as the vibrator levers haveassumed. the position correspondingto the next shed the cam willact'to movethe arm :44 to the left,therebypositively moving the lock knife toward the tips. Thisactionpreferably precedes engagement of the vibrator gears with themutilated actuatingcylinders. The cam left as viewed inFig. 1 during thetime that isso designed as to'hold the lock knife to-the a the vibratorgears are being rotated. As soon as their movementiscompleted the camwillact to movethe lock knife positively to I the right awayfrom thetips sothat thelevers 14 may again respond to thedemands of the nextsucceeding shed. V

As previously .suggestcdl if jthev lock does not 1 align accurately*Withthe tips 22 because of the fact that it is not strictly parallel tothe pattern cylinder shaft 17, the vertical position of the rods 30 maybe adjusted to bring about the proper alignment,- 7

after which the: stud 49 can" beadjustedlto insure proper inwardmovement toward the tips 22 on the part of the lockknife 28. There issufficient clearance in the device to permit? the lock knife to move outof engaging. position with: the vibrator levers to any one; of

several outwardipositionse It is not so essential to beable to. positionaccurately the out ward or right hand movement of the lock knife, andthis fact makes it possible by the structure set forth to give-the lockknife its proper inward movement. The setting should be such thatithehorizontal flat upper and lower surfaces of the lock knife shouldbepermitted to engage thesurfaces 27 and 26, respectively, when the lock:knife is in its full inward position. I

A feature of my present invention which sofar as I am aware has notexisted in'previous construct-ions of this type resides in the factthatthe lock knife is given a positive inward movement towardthe vibratorlevers;

It occasionally happens that a vibrator lever V will not be perfectlystraight and will have suflicient frictional contact with a neighboringlever so that when the latter is raised the bent lever will riseslightly. Under such conditionsthe upper inclined surface 23 will be outof alignment with the corresponding surfaces of the lowered vibratorleversand as,

the lock knife moves inwardly'its downward surface will engage the part23 of the slightly raised vibrator lever and depress the same tovibrator levers their proper setting. It has also been found in certaininstances the continual stretching and contraction of the aforesaidsprings results in their breakage and causes the lock knife to be givena positive outward movemnt but no positive in Ward movement, thus thevibrator levers will not be locked or moved to their proper positionwhen the spring breaks and the defective operation of the head motionwill result.

From the foregoing it will'be seen that I have provided an improved formof lock knife for Knowles heads wherein positive locking and unlockingmovements are given to the lock knife. The lock knife and the vibratortips are preferably so formed that the positive inward movement willresult in moving a vibrator lever either to its full up or downposition. In previous constructions where a yielding element has beenrelied upon to move the knife to locking position a misplaced vibratorlever could overcome the effect of the spring and prevent the knife frommoving to locking position. A mispick might result under theseconditions but the loom would continue to run and a change in thepattern might prevent a repetition of the mispick with suflicientfrequency to insure its protection. Furthermore, the parts are sorelated that they may be adjusted to bring about alignment with the lockknife With the tips 22, and the extent of motion may be varied by thestud 49 which is placed in a readily accessible position. 7

Having thus described my invention it will be seen that changes andmodifications may be made therein by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention and I do not wishto be limited to the details herein disclosed, but what I claim is:

1. A harness operating device havin a pair of spaced actuator cylindergears etween which extend movable vibrator levers, a lock knife toengage and restrain movement of the vibrator levers, a pivot about whichthe lock knife moves, an actuating lever for the lock knife extendingtoward the pivot of the lock knife, a second pivot about which the levermoves, operative connections between the lever and the lock knife, andmeans to move said operative connections to assume any one of aplurality of positions between said pivots.

2. A harness operating device having a pair of spaced actuator cylindergears between which extend movable vibrator levers, a lock knife toengage and restrain movement of the vibrator levers, a pivot about whichthe lock knife moves, an actuating lever for thelock knife, a secondpivot about which the lever lever and the lockr knife, meme connectionsto assume any ne'or applm positioned with respect to the cylindersby 8pattern mechanism, a lock knife eornrnen'to all the vibrator levers, atrack cam-moving with one of the cylinders and a cam lever moved inopposite directions positively by the cam and operatively related to thelock knife and effective to give the latter movements independent of andsubsequent to positioning of the vibrator levers by the patternmechanism.

4. In a harness controlling mechanism opcrating with spaced rotatingcylinder gears,

and a set of vibrator levers to be operatively positioned with respectto the cylinders by a pattern mechanism, a lock knife common to all thevibrator levers, a track cam rotating with one of said cylinders, a camlever OP- 7 eratively related to the cam and moved thereby positive inopposite directions, a frame for the lock knife, and connections betweenthe frame and the lever effective to transmit positive forces from thesaid lever to, the lock positioned with respect to the cylinders by apattern mechanism, a lock knife common to all the vibrator levers, atrack cam moving;

with one of the cylinders, a cam lever operatively related to the cam tobe given positive movements by the cam in opposite directions, a lockknife frame movable about a pivot reconnections between the cam leverand the frame, the cam being effective after the pat-- tern mechanismhas positioned the vibrator levers to move the lock knife into lockingrelation with respect to said vibrator levers.

6. In a harness controlling mechanism operating with spaced rotatingcylinder gears, and a set of vibrator levers to be operativelypositioned with respect to the cylinders by a pattern mechanism, a lockknife common to all the vibrator levers, a track cam moving with one ofthe cylinders, a cam lever operatively related'to the cam to be givenpositive movements by the cam in opposite directions, a lock knife framemovable about a pivot removed from the pivotof the cam lever, andconnections between the cam lever and the frame, the cam being effectiveafter the patmoves,- operative 'ee'n neetrons H H fro '3;harnesscontrollingmechanismop ioo 'moved from the pivot of the camlever, and I temg'mechanism has positioned the vibrator leversfto move.thelock knife vinto-locking relati on with ,.respect ;to said vibratorlevers, sa-id connections includin ,a part normally 5 fixed to butmovable to %ifierent positions y relatively-to the lock k-nife frame,said part 7 t o operativelyrelated tothe cam lever to vary [the amountof movement of the lock knife, 2; V 1 'fb Invtestimony whereof I havehereunto affixed-my-signature' v :WILLIAM M. WATTIE.

